Specipig has signed an agreement with Zircon Medical, Swiss-based ceramic implant manufacturer made up of a team of seasoned experts in dentistry who are passionate about improving the quality of life of patients worldwide by making Patent™ the standard, healthy and sustainable choice for tooth replacement.

Several studies involving Zircon’s dental implants and Specipig’s miniature pigs have been run at Specipig’s facilities. Resulting in the publication at the International Journal of Implant Dentistry (2022) 8:37.

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Abstract of the publication:

Purpose: To histologically examine early bone formation around transmucosal implants and to evaluate the influence of surface characteristics on early peri-implant bone healing using a miniature pig model. For this, commercially available dental implants with a rough zirconia (YTZP) surface were compared to surface-modified Ti control implants at 4 and 8 weeks after placement.

Methods: Immediately following the extraction of six mandibular premolars, 20 two-piece, tissue-level, screwshaped YTZP implants (Patent™ Standard Zirconia Implant ø4.1 × 11 mm) with a modified rough blasted before sintering surface were inserted in four adult miniature pigs. In addition, four titanium (Ti) tissue-level implants ( Straumann® Standard RN ø4.1 × 10 mm Roxolid ®) with a moderate surface ( SLActive®), one per animal, were placed as control implants. A histological analysis was performed on the hard tissues after 4 and 8 weeks of transmucosal healing.

Results: The results show a high rate of osseointegration of the test YTZP dental implants at 4 and 8 weeks following insertion. At 4 weeks, a bone-to-implant contact ratio (BIC) of 73.7% (SD ± 16.8) for the test implants (n = 10) and 58.5% for the first control implant was achieved. The second control implant had to be excluded from analysis. At 8 weeks, a BIC of 82.4% (SD ± 16.9) for the test implants (n = 9) and 93.6% (SD ± 9.1) (n = 2) for the control implant was achieved. No statistical difference was observed comparing 4 and 8 weeks YTZP data (p = 0.126).

Conclusions: The results indicate a predictable osseointegration of immediate zirconia implants with a modified YTZP implant surface and a high degree of BIC present at 4 weeks following insertion. After 8 weeks of healing both the zirconia implants and the Ti implants show a BIC indicating full osseointegration. Further studies involving a larger sample size with more time points are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: Animal experiment, Miniature pig, Zirconia implant, Osseointegration, Immediate implant, Transmucosal